Glass Box Diaries

Just published a new article that goes over the downsides of community tanks: glassboxdiaries.com/downsides-of-community-aquariu…

To be clear, community tanks are a great way to keep an aquarium—they let you enjoy multiple species living together in the same tank. I keep several community tanks myself and I’m planning to add more to my fish room.

That said, there are some common problems many beginners overlook when setting one up, so I wanted to highlight them and explain how to avoid them.

The long-form video version of this will be coming out later this week 🙂

#aquarium #fishtank #plantedtank #plantedaquarium #fishkeeping #tropicalfish

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4 days ago | [YT] | 410

Glass Box Diaries

This is Coral, my new betta fish.

After publishing a short yesterday about potentially de-building this tank, I went to a local aquatic shop to pick up a new pearl gourami and some neon tetras for my 40-gallon community tank.

While I was there, I noticed they had some female koi bettas for sale, and I decided to try one from a local shop instead of ordering online and putting a fish through the shipping process.

The Endler's Livebearers that were in there have been moved to their new tank to free this one up for the betta.

So far, she’s settled into the tank really well.

She’s ignored the shrimp, had a quick look at the nerite snail, and has eaten her first meal without issue.

Next week, I’m planning to order a pot of Monte Carlo for the foreground, Lobelia cardinalis ‘Mini’ for the back left, and potentially swap the Limnophila sessiliflora for Hygrophila difformis.

I’ll also be ordering another batch of white Neocaridina shrimp to try to get some males in there and start a breeding colony.

#betta #bettafish #aquarium #fishtank #fishkeeping #tropicalfish

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5 days ago | [YT] | 466

Glass Box Diaries

Here’s a quick update on my filterless Endler’s livebearer tank, now 223 days old.

How I Setup This Aquarium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz6tu...

It uses a soil substrate capped with gravel, a Chihiros AII light running at 30% intensity, a Fluval T-series heater, and fast-growing plants for natural filtration.

This tank was originally set up for a betta, but sadly the fish had health issues from unboxing and didn’t make it.

Since then, I’ve been keeping Endler’s livebearers in here, and they’ve been doing far better.

I’ve recently started moving some of them into their new rectangular tank, which has a larger horizontal footprint and gives them more room to swim.

My colony of white Neocaridina shrimp is doing well, but they still haven’t had any babies. I often see saddled shrimp with eggs in their ovaries, so I think they may all be female.

There’s a research paper suggesting that Neocaridina bred in cooler water can have an 8:2 female-to-male ratio, which could explain why this is a common issue in the hobby. I may order another batch soon to try and introduce some males.

All the plants in here are thriving. The main plant responsible for natural water purification is Limnophila sessiliflora.

Two clumps of Monte Carlo have also taken hold and are slowly starting to spread, so I’m curious to see how they develop.

I’m a bit torn about keeping this tank long-term, as cube and portrait tanks can be quite restrictive unless you’re planning to keep a betta or a shrimp colony.

The new tank for the Endlers is fully cycled and ready for the full colony to move over, so I may eventually break this one down and give it to a friend who breeds a lot of shrimp.

#aquarium #fishtank #fishkeeping #plantedtank #plantedaquarium #walstad

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6 days ago | [YT] | 265

Glass Box Diaries

I’ll be a guest on a livestream over on Edgar’s Fish Channel on 17 January 2026, starting at 10am UK time.

While the main focus will be aquarium-related topics, we’ll also be chatting about growing social media brands and answering questions from viewers live.

You can click the link to his YouTube channel to check the local start time in your area:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAuiY...

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 99

Glass Box Diaries

After seeing steady growth on Google Trends over the past couple of years, this month has officially seen more people searching for information on Neocaridina shrimp than ever before.

Personally, I think it’s great to see the shrimp-keeping side of the hobby taking off as quickly as it is.

In 2025 alone, I gave away hundreds of shrimp—some of them to people I never would’ve expected to get into the hobby, let alone keep shrimp specifically.

#neocaridina #shrimpkeeping #shrimptank #cherryshrimp

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 90

Glass Box Diaries

This is my filterless guppy and cherry shrimp tank, which is 625 days old as of today. It’s set up using the Walstad Method, with a thin layer of topsoil capped by fine gravel as the substrate.

The plants handle the vast majority of the filtration, and even after recently removing all of the duckweed from the surface, the water parameters have remained safe and stable, with no signs of toxin spikes.

My yellow cobra guppy and two blue lyretail Endler guppies are all doing well, although I haven’t seen my dark blue guppy for about a week. That said, I’m not convinced he’s definitely passed away—he’s disappeared into the plant cover before, only to resurface days later at feeding time after quietly helping himself to shrimp food.

The tank is heated to 22°C, or 72°F, which is slightly cooler than the ambient temperatures it experiences during the summer months. Even so, the shrimp have adapted well. While there are still a few females carrying eggs, breeding activity has definitely slowed over the past month or so.

Overall, the plants are doing well, but I want to briefly touch on the Rotala, as it’s been showing a potential issue for several months. I recently received a comment asking whether the smaller leaves might be due to a lack of CO₂, but I believe it’s more likely related to the age of the stem plant itself. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the leaves become progressively smaller on new stems that grow after trimming.

This wasn’t an issue during the tank’s first year, but it’s become increasingly noticeable over the last couple of months.

Aquascapers often reference Takashi Amano, who suggested trimming stem plants around seven times before removing them and replanting the healthiest tops. I’m not sure if that guideline exists for this exact reason, but the new stems in this tank are significantly smaller than they used to be—and the Rotala rotundifolia here has been trimmed far more than seven times, as the tank is now approaching two years old.

#aquarium #fishtank #fishkeeping #plantedtank #plantedaquarium #walstad

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 602

Glass Box Diaries

This is my 25-litre (6.6 US gallon) budget-friendly, filterless and heaterless pearlweed jungle tank, and it officially turned 600 days old today.

The tank uses a simple dirt substrate capped with sand and is lit by an entry-level Seaoura SR616 light. Everything you see here was grown from a single pot of pearlweed, keeping the setup as affordable as possible.

Even in winter, with water temperatures sitting around 18 °C (64 °F), the pearlweed grows fast enough to naturally purify the water, keeping my Bloody Mary Neocaridina shrimp colony safe and healthy.

I recently moved the two Medaka rice fish that were in this tank to my larger 45-litre (12 US gallon) mixed Medaka setup. Once my local aquatic shop has them back in stock, I plan to restock this tank with orange Medaka only.

For now, the tank is home exclusively to my Bloody Mary shrimp colony, and despite recently moving eight shrimp to my shrimp bowl, the colony is thriving—you’d never notice the difference.

I know some people believe Neocaridina shrimp require tropical water temperatures, but this is now my third winter keeping multiple colonies at room temperature with no issues at all.

#aquarium #fishtank #fishkeeping #plantedtank #plantedaquarium #aquariumplants #aquaticplants #walstad

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 651

Glass Box Diaries

Throwback to one of my old guppy tanks. I’ve recently become aware that a South African guppy breeder has been using photos of this tank to advertise and sell their own guppies.

Since they aren’t using photos of their actual fish, I can only assume their guppies look nothing like this—so if you’re in that area, don’t expect anything resembling these fish from that seller.

#aquarium #fishtank #fishkeeping #guppy #guppies #guppyfish

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 258

Glass Box Diaries

With so many people asking whether I have a Discord server, I decided to finally set one up as a place for the community to hang out and interact with each other.

Here’s the join link: glassboxdiaries.com/discord

I’m new to Discord and haven’t used it much before, so this will definitely be a learning experience.

Everything should be set up correctly, but there may be a few early teething issues along the way!

#aquarium #fishtank #fishkeeping #plantedtanks #plantedaquariums #aquaticplants #aquariumplants

1 month ago | [YT] | 180

Glass Box Diaries

Here’s a quick update on my room-temperature golden white cloud mountain minnow tank as we head into winter, with the water temperature now down to around 18 °C (64 °F).

At this temperature, all of the fish, shrimp, and snails are doing just fine. This is the second winter for this setup, so I’m not worried about the livestock. What I am interested in, though, is how the plants continue to perform.

So far, water parameters have remained safe and stable, which tells me the microorganism colonies in both the tank and the filter are handling the temperature drop without issue. Over the coming months, however, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the plants. As temperatures fall, dormancy can begin, enzyme production can slow, and some plants may start to show nutrient deficiencies — but only time will tell.

It’s also worth noting that white cloud mountain minnows are a temperate species and actually prefer these cooler conditions compared to the warmer temperatures this tank reaches in summer. As a result, their activity levels have noticeably increased as things have cooled down.

Both Neocaridina and Amano shrimp also tolerate temperate temperatures well, but last winter I noticed that Neocaridina breeding slowed significantly in my room-temperature tanks, and I’m expecting a similar trend this year. Meanwhile, the pink ramshorn snail population is starting to pick up again, and I’ll be removing some of them over the next few weeks.

#aquarium #fishtank #fishkeeping #plantedtank #plantedaquarium #aquariumplants #aquaticplants

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1 month ago | [YT] | 568